Anna May Wong Who?

Rocking it Anna May Wong style

I'm not sure how many people feel the same way I do but I dreaded spirit week when I was growing up.  Every daily theme (except miss match day) was a struggle.  I'm sure this had something to do with the fact that I was poor.  I barely had enough clothes to rotate for the week let alone have extra stuff lying around to put together for spirit week.

Anyway, now that my kids no longer attend Montessori, we are presented with all of the "normal" school stuff that kids experience.  This week, the dreaded (for me, not my kiddo) spirit week.  Monday was pajama day (something I never understood because when you are poor, your regular clothes are your pajamas), Tuesday was Hollywood day, and today is miss match day.

Hollywood day posed a unique challenge for us.  Many kids had plans to come to school dressed as characters from movies.  As we prepared on Monday night, Ayden said to me, "Mom, what am I supposed to dress like?  No one in Hollywood or no characters that kids know look like me.  If I dress up, no one will make the connection.  That is unless I go as Mulan.  I don’t have a lot of options.”  (End sentence with a heavy sigh because she has first world problems).  Digging back into my archive of cool Asian things, I remembered a post by 18Million on Anna May Wong.  I showed Ayden some pictures and we read Anna May's bio.  She was sold.  We put together an ensemble that we hoped looked 1920ish. 

After school on Tuesday, I asked Ayden about her day.  She said no one knew who Anna May Wong was but it didn't matter to her.  She had a great day being someone who did something unheard of in a time when people who looked like her were not included or accepted and when the idea of beauty did not include Asian women.  Ayden had a wonderful day being a woman who was ahead of the times.  She wore Anna May Wong loudly and proudly.